ATA187 - CME - PRI - Faxing

[johnivey]

Is there some document that describes how to setup an ATA187 connected to a fax machine to successfully send and receive faxes?  I am running CME 10, I have 187.9-2-3-1 running in the ATA.  I have dial tone, the ATA is registered with the correct DN, and faxes work - most of the time.  I have read through many articles on setting up various combinations of transcoders, T.38, pass-throughs, and codecs.  I can't seem to find a straight answer on the best way to set this up.

I get good faxes most of the time, but sometimes I only get the top or part of the top of a page.

Thanks for any suggestions in advance.

[paolo bevilacqua]

Check first "show network-clocks".

[johnivey]

CME-CH#sh network-clocks

  Network Clock Configuration

  ---------------------------

  Priority      Clock Source    Clock State     Clock Type

    10          Backplane       GOOD            PLL

  Current Primary Clock Source

  ---------------------------

  Priority      Clock Source    Clock State     Clock Type

    10          Backplane       GOOD            PLL

[Robert Thomas]

Best way to get faxing working is to have T38 end to end. Previous ATA 186 didn't support T38, but 187 are the first model to support T38. Other fax mechanism like FAX relay, or passthrough are not reliable.

How you can get T38 end to end in your scenario varies on the type of gateway you have to the PSTN. It's not the same if you have the PRI and own the ISR GW, or you have a SIP Trunk to the ITSP.

Generally speaking you want your FAX traffic not to traverse through any XCODE or any Passthorugh MTP as this normally create issues. Whether you can achieve this or not, depends on your design.

[johnivey]

My current scenario is a PRI coming into a 2951 router running CME 10. I am using ATA187 units to connect the fax machines. Will this work T.38 end to end?

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[Jorge Armijo · Accepted solution]

Yes, in the call flow you jut described you can use a fax protocol:

PSTN---PRI---CME---SIP---ATA187

To invoke a FoIP Protocol you must have 2 IP devices, so the FoIP protocol can be invoked between the 2 ends, the first one is CME, the second is the ATA187, to know what would be the best FoIP protocol you have to consider the call flow, devices and call control protocols involve. On this paritular call flow I would use passthrough. 

Try this:

voice service pots

fax rate disable

voice service voip

fax protocol none

modem             passthrough nse codec g711ulaw

voice register pool x <-- ATA Pool

no vad

codec g711ulaw

Since you have a PRI, you must ensure there are no Slips on the controller, that's terrible for fax media, take the output:

show controllers t1

sh run | sec network

sh run | sec controller

HTH

--
Jorge Armijo

Please remember to rate helpful responses and identify helpful or correct answers.

[Robert Thomas]

I would strongly encourage you to stay way from passthrough and look to configure T38 end to end. You can have T38 end to end setup if you own both devices. With Passthrough a single packet loss will cause the T30 session to fail. With T38 instead you can have redundancy so packets are sent multiple times and are less prone to fail, giving you a better success rate for faxing.

[johnivey]

How would I setup the T38 with this configuration?

[m.batts]

try this link

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/products/sw/voicesw/ps5640/products_configuration_example09186a0080bf23f2.shtml

[johnivey]

I have looked at this page before but it doesn't have my particular scenario listed, and I am using CME.

[Robert Thomas]

Your CME is really just an H323 GW with Dial-Peers. I would recommend you try the following scenario.

Telco — PRI — GW — SIP/H323 — CUCM — SIP — Fax Server

[Jorge Armijo]

Robert Thomas wrote:
Your CME is really just an H323 GW with Dial-Peers. I would recommend you try the following scenario.
Telco — PRI — GW — SIP/H323 — CUCM — SIP — Fax Server

There is no CUCM nor Fax Server on this scenario. We just have CME and ATA187.

johnivey, Can you try what I suggested? Did you check the status of the PRI as I ask?

If we find slips on the T1 faxes eill never work, no matter what protocol you use.

HTH

--
Jorge Armijo

Please remember to rate helpful responses and identify helpful or correct answers.

[johnivey]

I do see T1 slips.  How would I get that corrected?

Output:

T1 0/0/0 is up.

  Applique type is Channelized T1

  Cablelength is short 110

  No alarms detected.

  alarm-trigger is not set

  Soaking time: 3, Clearance time: 10

  AIS State:Clear  LOS State:Clear  LOF State:Clear

  Version info FPGA Rev: 08121917, FPGA Type: PRK1

  Framing is ESF, Line Code is B8ZS, Clock Source is Line.

  CRC Threshold is 320. Reported from firmware  is 320.

  Data in current interval (512 seconds elapsed):

     0 Line Code Violations, 0 Path Code Violations

     38 Slip Secs, 0 Fr Loss Secs, 0 Line Err Secs, 0 Degraded Mins

     38 Errored Secs, 0 Bursty Err Secs, 0 Severely Err Secs, 0 Unavail Secs

  Total Data (last 63 15 minute intervals):

     27 Line Code Violations, 2 Path Code Violations,

     5129 Slip Secs, 0 Fr Loss Secs, 1 Line Err Secs, 0 Degraded Mins,

     5129 Errored Secs, 1 Bursty Err Secs, 0 Severely Err Secs, 0 Unavail Secs

sh run | sec network

     network-clock-participate wic 0

sh run | sec controller

     controller T1 0/0/0

      cablelength short 110

      pri-group timeslots 1-24

[Jorge Armijo · Accepted solution]

Add the following command:

network-clock-select 1 t1 0/0/0

controller t1 0/0/0

clock source line <-- default

After adding the commands, do "clear counters" and then verify again with "show controllers t1" if the slips go away.

HTH

--
Jorge Armijo

Please remember to rate helpful responses and identify helpful or correct answers.

[johnivey]

I chandged the clocking as requested a couple hours ago and have 0 slips.  I have the config below.  Someone called me just a few minutes ago and said they only got the first page of a twelve page fax.

voice service voip

ip address trusted list

  ipv4 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0

allow-connections h323 to h323

allow-connections h323 to sip

allow-connections sip to h323

allow-connections sip to sip

supplementary-service h450.12

redirect ip2ip

fax protocol t38 version 0 ls-redundancy 0 hs-redundancy 0 fallback pass-through g711ulaw

no fax-relay sg3-to-g3

h323

  h245 caps mode restricted

sip

  bind control source-interface GigabitEthernet0/0

  bind media source-interface GigabitEthernet0/0

  registrar server

  asserted-id ppi